8.  The applicants were born in 1961 and 1965 respectively and live in Clamart.
9.  Ms Valérie Gas (“the first applicant”) has cohabited since 1989 with Ms Nathalie Dubois (“the second applicant”). The latter gave birth in France on 21 September 2000 to a daughter, A., conceived in Belgium via anonymous donor insemination. A. does not have an established legal tie to her father, who acted as an anonymous donor in accordance with Belgian law. The child has lived all her life in the applicants’ shared home. On 22 September 2000 her name was entered in the register of births, deaths and marriages held at Clamart town hall. She was formally recognised by her mother on 9 October 2000.
10.  The two applicants subsequently entered into a civil partnership agreement which was registered on 15 April 2002 with the registry of the Vanves District Court.
11.  On 3 March 2006 the first applicant applied to the Nanterre tribunal de grande instance for a simple-adoption order in respect of her partner’s daughter, after her partner had given her express consent before a notary.
12.  On 12 April 2006 the public prosecutor lodged an objection against the first applicant’s application, on the basis of Article 365 of the Civil Code (see paragraph 19 below).
13.  In a judgment of 4 July 2006, the tribunal de grande instance observed that the statutory conditions for adoption were met and that it had been demonstrated that the applicants were actively and jointly involved in the child’s upbringing, providing her with care and affection. However, the court rejected the application on the grounds that the requested adoption would have legal implications running counter to the applicants’ intentions and the child’s interests, by transferring parental responsibility to the adoptive parent and thus depriving the birth mother of her own rights in relation to the child.
14.  The first applicant appealed against that decision and the second applicant intervened in the proceedings on her own initiative.
Before the Versailles Court of Appeal the applicants reaffirmed their wish, by means of the adoption, to provide a stable legal framework for the child which reflected her social reality. They argued that the loss of parental responsibility on the part of the child’s mother could be remedied by means of a complete or partial delegation of parental responsibility, and submitted that other European countries permitted adoptions which created legal ties with a same-sex partner.
15.  In a judgment of 21 December 2006, the Court of Appeal upheld the refusal of the application.
Like the first-instance court, the Court of Appeal noted that the statutory conditions for the adoption had been met and that it had been established that the first applicant was active in ensuring the child’s emotional and material well-being. It nevertheless upheld the finding that the legal consequences of such adoption would not be in the child’s interests, since the applicants would be unable to share parental responsibility as permitted by Article 365 of the Civil Code in the event of adoption by the spouse of the child’s mother or father, and the adoption would therefore deprive Ms Dubois of all rights in relation to her child. The court further considered that simply delegating the exercise of parental responsibility at a later date would not suffice to eliminate the risks to the child resulting from her mother’s loss of parental responsibility. Accordingly, in the court’s view, the application merely accorded with the applicants’ wish to have their joint parenting of the child recognised and legitimised.
16.  On 21 February 2007 the applicants lodged an appeal on points of law, but did not pursue the proceedings before the Court of Cassation to their conclusion. On 20 September 2007 the President of the Court of Cassation issued an order declaring the right to appeal on points of law to be forfeit.